Rheinberger: Works For Organ, Vol. 5

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Cat No: 8557184

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Release Date: 12 January 2003

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313218424

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: RHEINBERGER

Description
Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger (1839-1901)Organ Works, Volume 5While for many his name may now have little resonance,Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger remains familiar enough to organists, to whoserepertoire he made such an extensive contribution, in particular his twentysonatas for the instrument. Among his contemporaries he was held inconsiderable esteem as a teacher, preserving classical standards in a changingworld, and some of his Catholic liturgical music may still occasionally be heard.Rheinberger was born in Vaduz, the capital of theprincipality of Liechtenstein, in 1839, the son of the Treasurer to the Prince.He had his first organ lessons at the age of five and two years later was ableto serve as organist at Vaduz, making his first attempts at composition. From1848 he was able to have more formal instruction in the nearby town ofFeldkirch from the choirmaster Philipp Schmutzer, who had been trained inPrague, and gain some familiarity with the music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.It was on the advice of the composer Matthaus Nagiller that his father waspersuaded to allow him, in 1851, to study at the Munich Conservatory. Histeachers there included, for theory of music, Julius Joseph Maier, a pupil ofMoritz Hauptmann, himself a pupil of Spohr and founder of the BachGesellschaft. His organ teacher was the virtuoso Johann Georg Herzog, who hadjoined the staff of the Conservatory in 1850, and he studied the piano withJulius Emil Leonhard. He was also to take private lessons from Franz Lachner,who, as a young man, had been a member of Schubert's circle in Vienna. Duringhis three years of formal study he already showed very considerable abilityboth as an organist and as a master of counterpoint and fugue. In the 1850s hecontinued to write a varied series of compositions, including three operas andthree symphonies, but these were withheld from publication. His first publishedcomposition was a set of piano pieces, issued in 1859, the year in which he wasappointed to the staff of the Munich Conservatory as a piano teacher andsubsequently as a teacher of theory. In the following years he was appointedorganist at the Church of St Michael, conducted the Oratorio Society, servedbriefly as repetiteur at the Court Opera, and from 1867 held the position ofprofessor of organ and composition at the Conservatory, retaining this untilhis death in 1901. Among other distinctions he was in 1877 appointed CourtKapellmeister and was the recipient of academic honours in Munich and abroad.He enjoyed the highest reputation as a teacher, with pupils includingHumperdinck, Wolf-Ferrari and Furtwangler, inculcating in them a respect forsound classical principles. His marriage in 1867 to a widowed former pupil, thewriter Franziska von Hoffnaass, led to the setting of many of her verses, partof a wide range of works of all kinds. His organ compositions, while keepingsome place in current performance repertoire, have for long proved a valuableelement in the training of new generation
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